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By six months, your baby's simple "oohs" and "aaahs" are beginning to morph into vowel-consonant combos, like "ah-goo" or perhaps even toy with the heart-melting "da-da" and "ma-ma." It's unlikely that your baby attaches any meaning to his babbles, but these sounds are important nonetheless; he's practicing the mouth movements he'll need to produce real words one day, and building the brain cells that'll help him make the leap from thinking to talking. All those "la-la-la's" and "ah-ga-ga's" are a big step toward real words and conversations, so listen up and be proud of his accomplishment!

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To help boost both receptive language (understanding what he hears) and expressive language (saying his own words), keep talking (and talking and talking) to your little one. Speak slowly, clearly, and simply, so your baby can begin to pick out actual words from the steady stream he's hearing. Emphasize individual words over and over again, especially those for familiar objects: "Let's play with your ball. Here is your ball, your red ball. We can roll the ball back and forth!" Try teaching him simple commands, such as "kiss mommy" or "pet doggie." He probably won't be able to comply on his own at first, but if you show him patiently what you mean, he'll eventually perform (and how thrilled you'll both be then!).

Keep your baby interested in his own prattling power by repeating his sounds back to him. When he says "ga-ga-ga," respond with your own enthusiastic "ga-ga-ga," He'll love the attention — and get in the habit of imitating your real words too.

Updated: 6/23/14

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